It all Started in the Jungle
by CrazyCanadian
Summary: A Jedi team is sent to investigate an isolated outpost which no one can remember ever building. When they arrive they discover an empty building, damage to everything, and bodies everywhere. Then they find a Terran. M just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys, another Star Wars story, just for all of you! Enjoy!! This will also have Earth in it, although a radically different one than my other one.

------

The jungle was silent. It was a hard thing to come by in the jungle, usually even the large ships passing overhead would no more than dull the roar of sound which echoed from the jungle floor. Yet now, there was nothing but silence.

-----

High above the silent jungle hovered a shuttle with the logo of the New Republic emblazoned on the side of it. Slightly above it was the additional emblem of the Jedi Order, which marked the shuttle as the personal shuttle of the order.

Currently it was hovering over a break in the jungle canopy where a collection of structures were enclosed by a high wall built of pre fabricated material. The little outpost was the only piece of civilization around for almost five hundred kilometres in any direction. There was a small town that was more an outpost for the main city that was another three hundred kilometres away from the mysterious outpost.

-----

"I still say there's something odd about this." said Capra Geldon, the Jedi Knight in charge of the ad hoc mission group that had been hastily scrambled to get out here.

"You mean aside from the fact that this little base isn't on any records and therefore shouldn't be here?" asked her friend Jaryn Halos, also a Jedi Knight.

"Yeah, I do mean aside from that. Don't you think its weird that we haven't been hailed? Or at least that we see some activity down there?"

"A little odd, but they can still hope at this point that we haven't seen them right?" said Jaryn grinning, "Heck for all we know these people have a perfectly legitimate reason to be here."

"Right." Capra rolled her eyes

"Not saying they do, just keeping an open mind like Master Skywalker always tells us too."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." muttered Capra, "So what do you want to do? Are we going down?"

"Hmmm." said Jaryn, thinking. In addition to the two Jedi there were five Army troopers that had been assigned to the mission, as well as a spook from Intelligence. It was an awfully small party to go calling with, but at the same time, whoever was down there shouldn't present too much of a problem.

"Okay," he said, "We'll go."

* * *

The shuttle hovered over the small landing pad that was nestled into the middle of the base, between three other buildings that gave it some protection from view from anyone in the jungle. Everything was still quiet except for the whine of the shuttle engines as they shut down.

"Well, guess we better go knock." said Jaryn, striding down the landing ramp with Capra by his side, "Sergeant Pax, detail three to stay behind, the rest will come with us."

Sergeant Moira Pax, a ten year military veteran nodded, jerked her head at Corporal Daxton who tapped two privates to remain behind. The remaining private hurried in front of the two Jedi and took point. The Intel geek fell in behind and Pax took the rear.

The party moved off towards the building in front of them which had a large bank of satellite dishes and antenna. Corporal Daxton stationed himself and the two privates by the extended shuttle ramp and set up a small automatic laser turret.

* * *

Something stirred. There was a new presence nearby. A tantalizing one. It was…different.

* * *

The Knights and their escort paused in front of the main entrance to the probably command post. The door was half melted along one side, making for a hole large enough to squeeze a human through.

"This doesn't bode very well for us finding people." said Capra

"Oh no, its bodes very well, just might be people we'd wish we hadn't met," said Jaryn, unhooking his lightsaber, "I'll widen this a bit and then we'll get in there."

It took almost two minutes of gruelling work to widen the hole, which surprised both of them. Most metals were far easier to breach than that, which implied that this wasn't any ordinary scratch colony. This was beginning to look like some hush-hush government lab or something.

Sergeant Pax took point and hopped through the expanded breach in the door. She landed in a hallway that had been completely and thoroughly trashed. Debris was scattered everywhere, and there was widespread damage to the walls.

Further down, it widened out into a circular room with what looked like banks of computers. Pax waved the group forward, and cautiously proceeded towards the end of the hallway.

Pax stepped into the room, checking it out for threats. There was a small desk facing her, it looked like a security checkpoint. The glass door had been completely shattered, glass crunched under her boots as she continued on into the room.

Three separate rows of computer banks faced towards a large screen which covered most of the wall opposite Pax. The computers were unlike anything she had seen before, none of them appeared to use holo projectors, and they were all rather bulkier than the one's she was used too.

However, they had all been damaged in some way; some had been blasted apart, others had been soaked with fluids, and one had had something driven clean through it.

Pax waved the rest of the team forward as she moved deeper into the room. Off to the side, tucked away in a corner, was a single computer. It still had power, so Pax hurried over to it.

"Whaddya got Sergeant?" Asked Jaryn, walking over to where Moira was crouching beside the machine.

"Might have a bit of a clue," said Pax, "This baby still has power. We might be able to get something from it, once I've booted it back up."

The Intel geek came over to stand beside the two of them, while the other trooper Moira had brought with her kept an eye on the second Jedi. Within a minute the computer had booted back up and was ready to go.

The geek punched a query in, asking about events in the past twenty four hours. A flashing icon appeared on the screen, and the guy looked up, "I've got what I think is a video of something that the computer thinks is important."

"Go ahead and play it." said Jaryn

The geek nodded and hit a button. The flashing icon morphed into a video shot which covered the entire screen. The video displayed a man in a white lab coat standing inside a room that was covered with electrical equipment.

"_17 October 2565, Project Reclamation has reached its final stage. The Hive Mind will be brought to awareness in approximately two hours. We have assembled enough material for it to produce sufficient drones to begin supplying itself. Early reports from Dr. Jacobs indicate that the first shipment of combat forms should be available within the week."_

Another speaker cut across the doctor on the camera, _"Will they be controllable Doctor? I have no wish to replace one threat to our race with another, especially one that has been designed to attack all kinds of technology."_

The Doctor onscreen smiled slightly, _"Not to worry General Fuller. We have ensured that safeguards have been placed in multiple spots inside the Hive Mind. All combat forms will be inactive until the troopships deploy them on reclamation missions. They are quite safe…at least to our personnel."_

"_Very well Doctor, but we'll be sending a heavy task force to ensure that nothing goes wrong. The last thing any of us want is these things running loose in the universe."_

A new voice came in after the General's voice fell silent, _"Doctor, what of the other inhabitants on the planet with you? Do any of them suspect that your complex is there?"_

"_Nothing that we've picked up has indicated they have any idea we established a laboratory complex here. Their main settlement area is over six hundred kilometres away from our current position."_

"_Excellent. Once your work has been completed, begin tear down of the facilities. We'll be shifting the Hive and all its occupants to an uninhabited world. Your current location has too much of a security risk, not to mention a containment risk to continue using it."_

"_Yes Mr. Director. My staff has already begun shutting down all non-essential systems. When can we expect the task force to arrive here?"_

"_It will arrive in 72 hours Doctor. Make sure you are ready. Out."_

The transmission cut out and the video ended a few seconds after. The room was once again filled with silence.

"What's the date on that video?" asked Pax

"Seventy-five hours ago Sergeant," replied the geek, "What's your take Jedi Halos?"

"What I think is that we better find out just what in all nine Corellian hells we've found here," said Jaryn, frowning in worry at the screen of the computer, "Check for a map of the building in there. I want to find this lab."

Capra walked up to him and tugged him away from the group a little bit, "Can you feel anything about this place Jaryn?"

"Nothing dangerous, why?"

"That's just the thing. I can't feel anything! I can't even feel anyone in this room!"

Jaryn reached out with the Force and found she was right. The Force was still there, but he couldn't feel anyth¾

"Wait…there is something…right below us, you feel that?" he asked

"No, not at…hold on." She concentrated for a moment, "Yeah, there's a faint presence about three levels down from us. It's very faint though Jaryn, barely alive."

"Then let's go find out what it is," Jaryn turned back to the rest of the small party that were all looking at the two Jedi, "We're going down, there's someone down there who is just barely alive. We don't know what we're walking into, so stay on your toes."

Pax nodded and then grabbed a sheet of flimsy that came out of the machine sitting next to the computer, "This is a map of this building. There should be elevators and stairs that way," she pointed down a corridor which was opposite the one they had come in from, "Private Teff, take point."

Teff nodded and raised his blaster rifle as he paced forward cautiously towards the direction Pax had indicated. He was only twenty two years old, this was his second actual mission, but he carried himself confidently enough, and handled his weapon with a calm assurance that went beyond his years.

Pax motioned for the two Knights to go next and then followed the Intelligence puke after them. She consulted her sheet again, and then stashed it in her combat harness.

The little group found the stairs quite easily, the door had been torn off and been sued to pry open the elevator doors. The interior of the elevator contained what were definitely organic remains, but of what was difficult to determine as they had been blended together, as if by some kind of harvesting machine.

They descended the stairs without incident, although they were forced to break out their own lights at the second landing because the power was completely out from that point down.

Teff came down to the third level access point and stopped outside the door which was partially opened inwards. At a nod from Jaryn, he nudged open the door with his blaster and then cautiously went through the opening. A muffled "Clear" came back and the rest of the party hurriedly departed the stairs.

Capra was becoming worried, the presence ahead was just as weak as before, but a new one had been coalescing in the back of her mind. The new…thing, was far more elusive, but also had a darker tinge to it, definitely something she didn't want to bump into. From worried expression, he could feel the new presence as well.

The corridor they had entered was littered with broken machinery and here and there were lumps and piles of clothes which Capra knew quite well contained bodies as well. Parts of the wall had been melted and torn away, and some areas of the ceiling had collapsed as well.

"There," said Jaryn, pointing at a door on their left, "The being is in there."

Corporal Daxton's voice suddenly crackled over Pax's comlink, _"Sergeant there's……approaching……ETA?"_

She stopped and pressed two fingers to the bud in her ear, "Corporal? You're breaking up. Say again your last."

"_S…again, storm…our position. What……ETA?"_

"Corporal, our ETA is two zero minutes. I say again, ETA is two zero minutes. Get into the shuttle and wait for us."

"—_ger, out."_

"Damn comlink's. They never bloody work!" muttered Pax, "This one you said?" she asked Jaryn

"Yes."

"Right, Private? Open it."

Teff slung his rifle and hauled on the handle, slowly pulling the door open. He then unsung his weapon and proceeded inside, closely followed by Pax and Jaryn.

The inside of the room was some kind of security center. There was a bank of monitors that were directly across from the door. Half of them were black, or buzzing with static, but a fair amount were still operating in low power mode. The rest of the room had been taken up with a table, some chairs, and several weapons lockers.

This room had also been somewhat torn apart, but to a lesser degree than the corridor outside. However, what teff was currently staring at were the four human bodies that were scattered around the room. Two of them had been clawed by some kind of animal, while one had had his head blown off. The fourth…what had happened to him was indescribable. Something appeared to have changed his original shape to one that sported massive claws on one hand, and what had been something like mandibles instead of a regular human mouth.

"Alright, nobody move." rasped a voice

Everyone in the Jedi's group turned to where a fifth human had appeared, clutching some kind of weapon which was pointed unerringly at Teff's chest.

"Who the hell are you people, huh?" The security guard leaned heavily against the desk, he was learly badly injured but his aim didn't waver at all, "Well?"

"We're an investigation team sent here to find out why there was an unauthorised settlement." said Jaryn, "My name is Jaryn Halos. Who are you and what happened here?"

"You just got here?" asked the man, wincing, "You have a way out of here?"

"Yes, we—"

"Then let's get the fuck out of here," said the human, rising quickly then toppling over backwards.

Capra hurried over to him, as did Pax, although Pax was more concerned with covering the sprawled human with her rifle than helping him. Capra placed a hand on the man's forehead and asked, "What happened here trooper?"

"Classified," groaned the man, "We gotta get out of here alright? The bastards left after Jimmy ate his pistol, they didn't smell me out, but they'll be back!"

"Who'll be back man? We have no idea what's going on here!"

The man looked up at Capra and said, "If we leave now, that happy little state of affairs can continue. Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you! Now let's get out of here!" he tried to get up only to fall back, groaning.

Capra looked up at Jaryn, "We can have this conversation on our shuttle. I think we should listen to him."

"Agreed, let's get out of here."


	2. Chapter 2

Well here's chapter two of my new Star Wars story. After this one I will be writing a history just to make sure everyone knows what's going on.

Anyway, on with the story…

--------

Jaryn looked up and jerked his head towards the door. Teff nodded and moved outside into the hallway.

As the rest of the team began moving towards the door, Capra noticed a sheaf of papers which were bound up in a folder. On a whim she grabbed them and tucked them into her robes, securing them as she strode towards the door.

The security man that they had discovered was now fairly steady and had found an exotic looking rifle, nothing like Capra had ever seen before. While she watched, he withdrew a curved rectangle of plastic or metal and slammed it into the bottom of the rifle, which he then brought up to a ready position and started moving back the way the Jedi had come from.

Jaryn followed close behind him with Teff, then the geek and Capra, then Pax brought up the rear. They made it to the stairs before a muted scraping sound drew Capra's eyes back the way they had come from the security room.

The guard cursed, "Shit. They're on the move. We gotta get out of here fast, or we ain't leaving!" Matching actions to words he turned and began running up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Jaryn added his own curses as he tried to keep up with the fleeing guard, with Teff frantically trying to cover the landings as they ran past. As the little group ran upwards, they could hear more sounds coming from the floors that had previously been dead.

Groans, scratching, and screams began to echo all around them. Then, as they neared the final landing before the main floor, gunfire erupted in front of them, shredding the door into metal splinters that went screaming down the stairwell.

Jaryn threw a Force bubble up around them, but too late to save the guard who took two splinters about a foot long through his left leg and left arm. Smaller pieces hit him all over and he crumpled to the floor with a cut off shout of pain.

From the destroyed door emerged another security guard, this one in full combat body armour. He had lost his helmet somewhere though, and they could see the glistening of sweat on his face as his rifle tracked towards the group.

"He's infected!" Shouted the downed guard, "Kill the fucker!"

Teff hesitated for a fraction of a second, which let the guard blast five rounds at the group, before he finally squeezed the trigger and hit the guard with three bolts right in the chest.

He staggered backwards, armour smoking and blackened from the lasers, then his hand began to slowly raise the weapon once again.

Then his head disappeared in a welter of gore as the downed guard fired a three round burst which impacted right under the man's chin and exited through the top of his skull.

As the body toppled over onto the floor, Jaryn grabbed the wounded guard, and hoisted him to his feet, "When we get out of here, you've got a hell of a story to tell buddy."

"Damn…right I…do," gasped the guard, "Just don't…let those things…get me."

"Let's go Sir," said Pax, "I've got movement coming up the stairs!"

They continued upwards to the sound of blaster and gun fire as Pax and the infected personnel of the base traded shots. The lobby was, fortunately, still clear of hostiles, and the tiny group of investigators charged down the hallway that they had entered from.

Suddenly Pax's comlink buzzed to life, "_¾heavy attack. Both privates are down, one dead, one seriously injured. Shuttle is under heavy attack from multiple hostiles. I say again, we are under¾"_

Pax quickly lifted the com to her mouth as she ran, "Corporal! We're on our way out now! ETA two minutes, I hope you have that shuttle running!"

The relief in Daxton's voice when he came back was very obvious, "_Sarge! I've been trying to raise you for a while! I thought you guys were goners. Shuttles prepped for launch, the pilots are keeping the hostiles at bay with the blaster cannon for now, but they're starting to shoot back at us. What've we found here??"_

"I've got a survivor of whatever went on here, and as soon as we're onboard and flying, we'll find out."

Pax flicked her comlink off and replaced it in her pouch, just as the group burst out into a light drizzling rain which had started up while they had been inside. The shuttle pad was a slagged pile of rubble, liberally coated with bodies or bits of them.

The shuttle was now hovering a few meters above the ground and about thirty meters away from the group. Its laser turrets were flashing furiously as it fired shot after shot into the gathering horde of diseased humans.

Then suddenly, Pax had other things to worry about as something grabbed her ankle and yanked.

-------

Jaryn heard the sergeant's cut off shout of surprise and whirled around in time to see something which had once been a scientist impale the Intel geek on a blade which had become part of his arm.

The thing stood on its two legs still, which were still human, and it also retained the head it had had when it had been a human. However the torso had expanded to accommodate the scythes that it now had to replace its arms. Pus and blood flowed from its chest and face, and it shrieked a battle cry as it held up the struggling sergeant with a tentacle that had grown out of its side, and readied one of its scythes.

Jaryn lunged forward at the monster and as he activated his lightsaber, he plunged it through the things human head. After the encounter on the stairwell, he thought he had killed the thing, and so was quite surprised when the other arm knocked him away like some pest, and sent him flying for five meters before hitting the ground.

------

Capra had also turned around at the sound of the sergeant's shout. She however, noticed the fact that the chest cavity seemed to have some kind of armour around it. She activated her lightsaber with the distinctive _snap-hiss_ just as Jaryn was being batted away, and stabbed the thing right through the chest.

It gave out a pained squeal and frantically tried to claw at the saber which had killed it, but only succeeded in severing its other tentacle and one of its scythe arms. The monstrous thing sagged to the ground, releasing Pax as it did so.

------

"Teff, get the survivor on the shuttle, the rest of you MOVE!" this was shouted by Corporal Daxton who had had the shuttle set down right beside the group as the corrupted human died.

Jaryn stumbled to his feet and grabbed Pax as she rolled upright, wincing, "Let's go Sarge. This place is for the mynocks."

The horde noticed that there were now people on the ground and began to swarm over to the group which was now loading itself onto the shuttle. The two pilots manning the ship managed to discourage them with targeted blasts from the laser turrets, but inevitably some got through.

Jaryn sliced a questing tentacle into two and then buried his lightsaber into the armoured torso of an infected. Then he withdrew it to cut a pistol in half, followed by removing the human's head at the shoulders.

He and Capra had formed a rear guard of sorts and slowly backed up the ramp, leaving a trail of broken and bleeding bodies behind them. As they got up onto the ramp, the shuttle began to slowly rise up.

Seeing this, the infected rushed forward, ignoring the losses they took as they tried to board the rising shuttle. Five of them managed to clamber onto the ramp, the rest didn't make it in time.

Capra and Jaryn spun, sliced, hacked, and stabbed at their five opponents. One of them, an unchanged human was quickly dispatched, while two others managed to get in each others way and actually pushed themselves off.

However, the final two had been changed like the one which had killed the geek, and they both seemed to have become experts in using their changed bodies. Capra and Pax worked together; Pax shooting at the thing, while Capra kept it busy fending off her lunges and slashes. The changed human quickly toppled off the ramp, bleeding from the stumps of where its arms had been, and also from where Capra had stabbed it in the center of its chest.

Jaryn had been equally busy with his opponent, but with no one to distract it with blaster fire, he had had a much more difficult fight. As Capra finally finished with her enemy, Jaryn's wrapped a tentacle around both his wrists and then slashed a deep gash across his chest and upper right leg.

"NO!" shouted Capra, bringing up her 'saber. She lunged at the thing as it was turning towards her and skewered it with her blade. It fell back into the base, as the shuttle began to climb into the sky.

Pax was already ministering to Jaryn by the time Capra had finished his opponent and shut the ramp. She had wrapped the wound with bandages and had squirted bacta into the wound. Capra knelt down by Jaryn's head and smiled as he opened his eyes.

"Hey," he said weakly, smiling, "Did we win?"

"We're out of the base, so yeah I guess so." Capra noticed the tightening of his eyes and felt at Jaryn's body with the Force, trying to determine what was wrong.

"I think…whatever that thing was…infected with…is inside me now." he said, grimacing in pain, "I'm trying to fight it, but I think I need to go into a Force trance to keep it at bay."

Teff came hurrying back from the cockpit with a worried look on his face, "Sergeant, we've got a problem. I think you need to take a look."

Pax looked over at Capra who nodded, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Pax nodded back and then went forward, following Teff to look at whatever problem he felt required her attention. Capra looked back down at Jaryn, but his eyes had already taken on the half closed glazed look of someone deep in a Force trance. She closed her eyes and drew the Force into her, feeling for the darkness of the infection which she had felt before.

She almost sobbed with relief when she found it was stopped, and just in time as well. From how it had spread through his body, in another minute he would have been gone, regardless of the Force trance. For know though, he was holding it at bay, though he didn't seem to be able to rid himself of it, at least he'd live until they could return to the Temple.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sergeant Pax returning to the room, looking worried, "Ma'am, I need you up in the cockpit. Someone…wants to speak with you."

Capra looked up questioningly, but Pax shook her head, "I think it's better if you see for yourself, Ma'am."

Capra nodded, "Get Jaryn settled in the medbay then." With that she stood and then went forward to see what had come up.

The cockpit of the shuttle which had carried them down to the surface was large enough to accommodate four seats and consoles for each of those seats. The two pilots sat in the forward two seats while someone else, in this case Private Teff, looked after the comms gear and the weapons.

When Capra entered, Teff looked up with relief and said, "We've got visitors Ma'am. They've asked to speak with whoever is in charge of our mission. They're…they're already onboard the _Vigilant_."

Capra's eyes widened. The _Vigilant _had been assigned to the Jedi Order by the New Republic. It specifically said that when the ship broadcast its ID to anyone, so whoever had taken it over obviously either was insane enough to think it was a good idea to take a Jedi ship…or they just didn't care.

Capra shook herself and then walked over to the holo station, keying in the code for the _Vigilant_, "This is Jedi Knight Capra Geldon, I'm in charge of our mission. To whom am I speaking, and why have you taken over my ship?" The question came out slightly harder edged than she had wanted.

The display was quiet for a few moments, then it snapped to life. The head and shoulders of a man were displayed on the console. He was wearing some kind of uniform, one that was totally unfamiliar to Capra, and spook in a really strange accent.

"Capra Geldon, I am Captain David Gordon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, Third Legion of Man. You have entered a restricted bio-hazard zone and I must quarantine your ship and your personnel until we can be assured that you have not been contaminated. Be advised that any resistance will be met with deadly force, as this bio-threat is extremely severe. Continue towards your ship, you will be met by my escort. Gordon clear."

The holo snapped off and Capra sank into the fourth chair, still staring at the empty space where the head of Gordon had been. Then one of the pilots cleared his throat, "Uh, Ma'am? I've picked up some mass readings. They're definitely star ships, but their drives are completely invisible as far as I can tell…and there's six of them Ma'am."

Capra turned to him, "What's their current position?"

"Two of them are with the _Vigilant_ right now Ma'am. The other four are all headed towards the compound. Not sure what they're up to, but two of them have the look of transports to me."

Capra nodded slowly, "This must be that task force they were talking about." her mind raced.

From that recording it sounded like these people were in deep, deep trouble. They seemed to have been counting on this 'Hive Mind' to defend them from something. Instead it had run amok, killing most of their personnel, and possibly unleashing a horrible fate on the population of the planet, well over half a billion sentient beings.

Whatever these people were here to do, she had to be here as well to try and ensure that the people on the planet below weren't killed, or left to be infected by whatever virus these people had created.

"Get us to the _Vigilant_," she said to the pilot who had reported the task force, "Let's hope these people will listen to us."

----------------

Back down on the planet, night had fallen. The city, called Calamar, shone in the darkness, banishing the night and providing a welcoming glow for dozens of kilometres around. A glow which had attracted…unwelcome guests.

-------------

Please review. I really hope you guys are liking the story so far, but again, constructive criticism is always welcome. Chapter three should be posted soon. Cheers!


End file.
